Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Washington (Agenzia Fides) – The United States Catholic Mission Association (USCMA) is promoting the 2011 Mission Conference themed “Push out into the deep... Communion and Missionary Discipleship” to be held from October 28-30, 2011.
According to information sent to Fides by Fr Michael Montoya, MJ, Executive Director of the USCMA, there will be three world renowned speakers and authors as keynote presenters: Ambassador Miguel Diaz, PhD, U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, noted theologian and former President of the Academy of the Catholic Hispanic Theologians in the U.S.; Fr Steve Bevans, SVD, one of the leading missiologists in the world and former President of the American Society of Missiology; Sr Madge Karecki, SSJ-TOSF, Director of the Office for Mission Education and Animation in the Archdiocese of Chicago, and director on the National Board of the US Catholic Mission Association and the Pontifical mission Societies.
Aside from the keynotes, there will be seven workshops/dialogue sessions on varied topics that are very important for missionaries - from spirituality to formation, from intercultural competencies to creative responses to current realities in mission, from looking into the creative tension between maintenance and mission to looking at immigrants as missionaries. There will also be a particular focus on Haiti and its implications for missionaries.
The Eucharistic Celebration on October 29, which will be presided at by Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, will be held at the Church of Notre dame d' Haiti in Miami, the pilgrim place for the Haitian communities in the US. Last year, the Church of Notre dame d' Haiti was filled with the tears and prayers of the Haitian community after the horror of the devastation of the earthquake.
For past 30 years, USCMA's Annual Mission Conferences have been the occasion for missioners from across the country and around the world to come together for the purpose of analyzing developments in our world and reflecting on their implications for mission. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 23/03/2011)
